Research Internship at Odyssey (Palo Alto, CA)
Odyssey· Palo Alto, CA·
Role details
Competitive Compensation · Mentorship From Research And Engineering Teams · Support From Data And Computational Infrastructure
Summary
Odyssey is seeking a research intern to collaborate with machine learning teams on general-purpose world models. The intern will define and pursue a 3-6 month research project contributing to publishable visual AI research, supported by mentorship and computational resources.
Job description
Who we are
Odyssey is an AI lab pioneering general world models: causal, multimodal systems that learn to predict and interact with the world over long horizons. This foundational technology promises to revolutionize robotics, science, healthcare, education, gaming, defense, and beyond. Odyssey’s founders previously pioneered the most complex application of physical AI: self-driving cars. They’ve now brought together a world-class research team from DeepMind, Tesla, Waymo, Meta, Apple, and Wayve, who have made significant contributions to language models (DeepMind Gemini), video models (DeepMind Veo), world models (Wayve GAIA), and autonomous systems (Tesla FSD). Odyssey has raised significant venture capital from GV, Amazon, AMD, EQT, NVIDIA, Natural Capital, In-Q-Tel, Elad Gil, Jeff Dean, Guillermo Rauch, Garry Tan, Kyle Vogt, and researchers from OpenAI, DeepMind, MSL, Recursive, and Thinking Machines.
What we're looking for
Odyssey is looking for talented research interns for 2026. We offer the opportunity for PhD students to collaborate with our machine learning research teams, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in state-of-the-art visual AI. You will define and pursue a research project which advances state-of-the-art general-purpose world models. You'll have the support of Odyssey's research and engineering teams, data, and computational resources. We encourage seeing the impact of your research in the models we ship publicly!
Who you are
You should be progressing towards a PhD or similar graduate degree, with some examples of research you’re able to share. You also should be able to work from one of our offices in Palo Alto or London. The internship may be done any time during the year.
What you’ll do
As part of this, you will define and pursue a 3-6 month research project towards publishable research in general-purpose world models. Odyssey’s goal is to expand what's possible in visual AI. We are open to a broad range of research topics which contribute to this. The project will contribute to your graduate degree portfolio of research. In addition to competitive compensation, we will support these projects with mentorship from our research teams, support from our engineering teams, along with data and computational infrastructure for you to complete the project.
The process As part of your application, please submit a short research proposal for a project you’d like to pursue. This should be at most a page and it is intended to help scope projects. Projects will be refined with successful applicants and the Odyssey research team.
Why work at Odyssey
- Culture and autonomy: Odyssey prizes "autonomy and ownership" – deep work with accountability, and the freedom to tackle meaningful, open-ended scientific problems odyssey.ml/careers.
- Team: Collaborate with researchers and engineers from leading labs who have driven major AI advancements. Strong peer group focused on original science odyssey.ml/careers.
- Work policy: Hybrid model – employees work from physical offices in Palo Alto, London, or Zurich. No remote-only option; typical time on-site not specified builtin.com.
- Compensation & benefits: Competitive salary and equity grants reflecting the demands of breakthrough AI research. Benefits include healthcare, disability insurance, 401(k), generous parental leave, PTO, company socials, and wellness initiatives builtin.com.
- Notable for job seekers: Rapidly scaling (raised $310M, hiring across research, engineering, product, and operations). Opportunity to shape a nascent category (world models) from the ground up.